Cherry Pits, Tangerine Seeds, and Worship

I am taking a class on the book of Revelation. One aspect of the homework for this class is to read through the entire book each week. While reading this week I have been struck by the worship that is described throughout the book. Once the intro and the messages to the churches have been given, the opening scene is a description of God's throne room in Heaven, where we see four rather strange looking creatures who continually offer praises to God...

"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!"

In response to this offering of worship twenty-four elders, who sit on thrones encircling God's throne, come out of their seats, fall down in obeisance, and offer up their own words of praise...

"Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created."

Turn the page, and there we see the four creatures and the twenty-four elders worshiping the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who is also the Lamb that was slain, because He alone is worthy to open the scroll that the Almighty holds in His hand.

From this point, things get a little scary. There are earthquakes and famines and death and destruction everywhere. Yet interspersed, here and there, in the midst of all the carnage are moments where time seems to stop. The noise and the smells and the sights fade away, and worship comes from the hearts and voices of those around the throne (the size of the crowd seems to grow with each scene). Sometimes the worship is simply adoration of God for who He is. Other times the worship is because of what He has done. But it is not the reason for the worship that has struck me.

What has struck me is the fact that the worship comes in the middle of, sometimes in spite of and other times because of, all the terrible things that are happening. So I have to stop and ask myself a question.

Do I worship God in the midst of the terrible things in my life?

On the other hand, while most of us have had moments or seasons of life to which the label "terrible" could be appropriately attached, I think that maybe I should ask a question that is more mundane, more to the tune of everyday life.

Do I worship God in the midst of the inconvenient things in my life?

Here is the U.S. we tend to view those things that make us uncomfortable as though they are beneath us, as if we deserve something better. If what makes us uncomfortable is another person, we want to remove that person from our lives. If what makes us uncomfortable is a situation or circumstance in which we find ourselves, then we work diligently to extract ourselves from that situation or circumstance. We really think that life should be a bowl of cherries. We believe those cherries should be pitted for us so we don't have to deal with the mess of doing it ourselves. We may even go so far as to think that the cherries should be pitted outside of our view so we never even have to be cognizant of the fact that the cherries ever had such things as pits in them.

Unfortunately, life is not a bowl of pitted cherries. Generally, we not only have to pit the cherries, we have to go to the orchard, pick the cherries, bring them home and wash them first. And sometimes, they even have worms in them.

So how do I handle life when it has wormy cherries? Do I have a heart of worship toward my Creator because of Who He is and for all He has done? Am I thankful that He created cherries? Am I honored that He loves us, His creation, enough that He would give us the sense of taste? Am I grateful that cherries taste so good?

The other day I had a honey tangerine for lunch. Honey tangerines are possibly the sweetest citrus fruit on the face of the planet. Their name is an apt description of their flavor.

They also have seeds. Lots of them. And, the skin around each section is a little tough, so it is not overly easy to get the seeds out.

So, as I seeded the tangerine, one of my co-workers walked through the lunchroom. I looked up at her and said, "You know, I love the flavor of these things, but it's a royal pain to get the seeds out." In the back of my mind I was beginning to think that maybe we should just stick with navel oranges. After all, they don't have seeds. Okay, they are not as sweet either, but they are so much easier to eat.

Now, until last fall, I had never heard of honey tangerines. But they have been in the produce section of our local grocery store for several months. We buy a few every payday when we do our semi-monthly tour through that store. For months I have been willingly taking seeds out of honey tangerines so that I can enjoy their flavor. Suddenly, the task of removing seeds seems like more work than the flavor of the fruit is worth. Why is that?

I hate to admit it, but I think the reason is that I have become focused on the seeding of the tangerine rather than on the eating of the tangerine. I have allowed the drive-through mentality of my society color my vision regarding honey tangerines.

Granted, honey tangerines are not a an issue of gargantuan proportion, but what about the rest of my life? Am I always looking for the easy way to do things, getting irritated at inconveniences, feeling as though life should be easier? Have I lost the attitude of worship?

Did I ever really have an attitude of worship?

When I look back at the worship scenes in the book of Revelation, I am struck again with wonder at how worship forces the horrendous into the background. How much more would it cause the inconvenient to become small and inconsequential? It is so much easier to view the world through the filter of gratefulness than through the filter of entitlement. Entitlement, believing that I deserve something or that things should be made easy for me, makes every aspect of my life heavy and difficult to bear. Worship, on the other hand, makes my life seem so much better, so much easier to handle. Entitlement encloses me in the grey clouds of self-centered thoughts. Worship opens the doors and windows and welcomes the sun's rays as they warm and cheer me from the inside out.

Yes, I've had some terrible moments in my life, and I have inconveniences on a daily basis. But I think I will choose the sunshine. I will enjoy my cherries and honey tangerines in spite of pits and seeds. I will be thankful for the sweetness of their flavors. I will worship God because He has given me the sense of taste, whereby I get to enjoy that which is required for the continued nourishment of my body. I will delight in the color that my eyes see around me, thankful that, while He could have made the world black and white, He chose to give us colors and eyes that see them. I will delight in the smoothness of finely polished wood, and also at the texture of fresh tilled earth beneath my bare feet. I will enjoy the smell of wood burning in the stove in winter, and savor the scent of rose and lavender wafting on the breeze in summer. I will listen with delight as the birds sing on the morning air and fall asleep to the thrumming of rain on the roof at night. With my own heart, and with my own voice, I will join those around God's throne as they sing...

"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."